Plans Imperfect
by Daelena
Summary: Catching a break and a stretch of calm seems to be hard for Archie and Emma, of late. As Emma prepares to head out with Mr. Gold to find his son, she has a quiet interlude with Archie. Swan Cricket.


Plans Imperfect

_Disclaimer__: As well you all know, I don't own anything here. I'm just playing in this sandbox and will, unfortunately, have to give everything back, once I'm finished – no matter how much I want to keep them_

_Summary__: Catching a break and a stretch of calm seems to be hard for Archie and Emma, of late. As Emma prepares to head out with Mr. Gold to find his son, she has a quiet interlude with Archie. Swan Cricket. _

_This is set between "In the Name of the Brother" and "Tiny."_

_I've been mulling over this, ever since "In the Name of the Brother" aired. Seriously though, it's becoming extremely difficult to write a steady Swan Cricket storyline for this season, simply because the show-runners and writers stepped up their game (and made the entire show all the more fun and interesting). I'm not complaining. It's a fun challenge, seeing what I can do to write Swan Cricket, but maintain show canon (as much as I possibly can)._

_Regardless, this show seems to be progressing and evolving in such an interesting way and I will do my darndest to write in Swan Cricket to the best of my abilities. (After all, I want to do the show and the characters themselves justice.)_

_Anyway, I won't keep you all waiting on my most recent attempts at writing Swan Cricket._

All Emma Swan wanted to do was curl up in bed, pull a blanket over her, and sleep for a good twelve hours straight, normal sleeping patterns be damned.

After pulling an all-nighter at the hospital, dealing with the effects of one Greg Mendall's rather dramatic arrival in Storybrooke less than a day after getting Archie back, she deserved so much. On top of that, Emma had not believed, for one moment, that Mendall was merely texting while driving (illegal as it was) and hadn't seen anything. There was something fishy about him and she didn't trust him, not as far as she could throw him.

Karma, as it seemed, had yet to finish playing with her.

Emma had wanted to punch Gold in the face, the moment that he had turned up and told her that she was going to help him track down his son. Punching him, while it accomplishes absolutely nothing, would be extremely therapeutic. There was no way she could get out of helping him. She had made that deal, all that time ago, and now he was cashing in on it.

Trouble was, Emma hated the idea of having to break the news to Archie. They had only a brief time together, when she and Mary Margaret got back from the Enchanted Forest, before Cora faked Archie's death and then, just hours after she got Archie back and they had finally gotten a chance to sleep some, her phone had gone off and she was on-call again as Storybrooke's Sheriff. Gold's rather untimely pronouncement only furthered her standing disdain for the man.

By the time she made it home, ready to pack her bags for her unwilling expedition out of Storybrooke, Archie was there as well.

It was such a relief to see his face, particularly after the night that she had just had. Emma had called him, once they had gotten to the hospital, letting him know why she had been called away so suddenly and that she was (more than likely) not going to be able to make it back home until everything had blown over. She could tell how upset he was by being interrupted by the insanity that seemed to surround their town perpetually.

And now she had to add just one more problem to their pile.

Archie had breakfast on the table and coffee in the pot. Emma felt her heart drop even further when she saw that.

"Emma?" he asked, standing up as soon as she walked into the kitchen. Archie paused, studying her face. He frowned. "What is it? Did something happen?" She sighed and walked over to him, wordlessly hugging him tightly. He returned her embrace, gently rubbing her back in that comforting way that always soothed her frazzled nerves. "Okay, what happened at the hospital?"

"It was anything to do with the hospital," she replied. Pulling back a little bit, Emma looked up at him. "It's Gold."

Archie raised an eyebrow, but there was something guarded in his eyes.

"What did he do this time?"

"He called in that favor that I owe him and now I have to leave town, just to help him find his son."

There, she said it. It was out in the open.

Archie was quiet for a few moments. Emma might have been worried by that silence, except for the fact his hands were still softly running circles on her back.

"When do you leave?" he asked finally, his voice quiet.

"At noon."

That was what really startled Archie. He stepped away from her and anger and disappointment flashed across his eyes

"He can't just do that!"

"He can," Emma replied. "I do owe him that favor." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just didn't expect that _this_ is what he was going to call it in for."

He frowned and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Don't go then!"

"I wish I could, but Gold made it pretty damn clear that, if I don't go, he would make things hell for me." Emma put her hands on her hips. "I only just got you back, Archie, and I'm not willing to put you and Henry on the line." Archie pursed his lips. Emma gave him a level look. "At least this time we're in the same dimension and it'll be a hell of a lot easier for us to be in contact with one another."

It was a lame offering of comfort, Emma knew, but it was the best that she could offer to him at the moment.

Emma was about to say something else, but Archie caught her quite by surprise, when he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. One hand reached up to cradle the back of her neck, pulling her in for a kiss, rough and rushed and desperate. She clutched the front of his shirt with one hand, slipping her other hand up to rest on his shoulder, leaning into him, deepening the kiss. Archie dropped the arm around her to the small of her back, pressing her close to him.

Finally, they pulled apart, both gasping for breath. Emma leaned forward and pressed her head against his shoulder.

"Why can't we catch a break?" he asked quietly.

Emma shifted and looking up at Archie enough to gave him a small smile.

"Because karma has a sick and twisted sense of humor?"

They both laughed at that very lame joke and their eyes met.

"You find Gold's son and then you come home, as fast as possible. Please?"

Emma nodded. "That's my plan."

He shifted his arms around her some. Archie's hand found her wrist and the charm bracelet that she had been wearing every single day, ever since he had given it to her. His fingers played with the sheriff's badge charm.

"You'd think that he would wait until you, at least, had a good night's sleep before he made his demands," Archie mused quietly.

Emma shrugged.

"This is Gold, we're talking about. I don't think he has a tactful bone in his body, when it comes to something that he wants."

Archie nodded in assent.

"You'll call?"

"Every day," she promised. Emma gave him a little smile. "I'll take a laptop and we can Skype with one another too."

He ran a hand through her hair, fingers rubbing against her skin.

"That's good," Archie replied. He sighed. "Is it bad for me to say that I miss you already?"

Emma shook her head.

"Nope, not at all." She reached up and pressed a kiss on Archie's cheek. "I'm missing you already too."

He gave her a sad smile.

"I suppose we should get you packed up. You don't have much time left before you have to leave town."

Emma looked from Archie to the food on the kitchen table and then back to Archie. A thought crossed her mind. She gave Archie a seductive smile, quirking an eyebrow at him in a very suggestive way.

"Bring some breakfast and the coffee and I'm sure I can be persuaded to get myself packed up," she said.

Archie caught her drift. He returned her grin.

Ten minutes later, he joined her in their bedroom, a tray of food in hand. She ended up needing all of the hours, leading up to noon, packing her bags. Emma knew that she was should have been spend time with Henry before she left town, but something inside of her told her that her son was going to do something that was very much like her. Even so, Emma needed these few hours with Archie more than anything else.

The time flew by far faster than she would have honestly liked, but (she sincerely hoped) it would be enough to sustain her until they were able to get back to Storybrooke. Once that happened, Emma was going to have to have some pretty serious words with that fickle mistress otherwise known as karma because all she wanted was some peace and quiet with her boyfriend and her son – and was that too much to ask for?

It was hard, when they walked out of the house, hand in hand, but Emma had to console herself with the fact that, this time, neither one of them was dead or ripped away unexpectedly to another dimension.

More than that, she had asked Archie to keep an eye out for Belle. The poor young woman had already dealt with enough as it was, if what Emma had pieced together of her past was anything to go by. Now, on top of everything else that was going on in this town, she had lost all of her memories of the Fairytale World (the good and the bad). She was probably reeling from all of that and Emma knew what it felt like to be a fish completely out of water, particularly in this town. Archie had readily agreed to that, so Emma was certain that Belle (or whatever she believed her name to be) was in very good hands.

So, with a steeled heart, Emma prepared herself to deal with going on some form of an adventure with Mr. Gold – who was also Rumplestitskin.

Man, her life had taken an even weirder turn in the last few months.

_So what did everyone think of this? Particularly given that we're about to get back into new episodes? Was it good? Bad? Halfway decent? Please review and let me know what you thought of this?  
And, with any hope, I will be struck by the Muse very soon and will be able to write a new Swan Cricket story. _


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